Affliction Warlock Talents & Build Guide – Legion 7.3.5

Welcome to the Affliction Warlock Talent guide! This guide provides an overview of all Affliction Warlock talents, information on which talents work well in different situations, and popular Affliction Warlock builds in Wowhead's talent calculator. This guide was originally written by Terryn, and is now being maintained and updated by Xyronic. You can check out my twitch page where I frequently stream anything to do with WoW. If you have any questions, it's best to PM me on discord @Xyronic#3576. Updated for the latest patch.

Intro to Affliction Talents

Patch 7.2.5 patch has really turned our talents up and over, but for the better. Many talents have been pulled down in power to the levels of others in its row, and other talents have been pulled up in power. This has opened up many new and exciting Affliction Warlock builds!

Talent Breakdown

Tier 1:

Tormento: A basic nuke that deals damage, has a cooldown of 25 seconds, and amplifies damage you deal to the target over the duration of a debuff. If your targets dies within the 10 second duration, the cooldown is reset. Strong in situations with constant swapping of burn targets.

Contorcimenti d'Agonia: Agonia stacks up to 15 instead of 10. This makes it even more important not to let it fall off. Exceptionally strong in multi target situation.

Stretta Malefica: Amplifies your dots on the target by 25% while draining. Strong in situations where you can plant and drain on a single target.

7.3.2 has returned Tormento to being a mostly useless spell. Contorcimenti d'Agonia is more than likely going to be the best option in almost all circumstances, except for stand still pure single target. Affliction's Tier 21 set bonus also improves this talent's potency. Stretta Malefica hasn't been significantly reduced in this patch, so it still ends up being slightly ahead of the other two talents on pure single target.

For pure single target situations, Contagio is always the best talent, as well as for 2 target. Above 3 targets, Corruzione Totale starts to pull ahead due to the GCD saving that it provides, as well as the extra damage corruption will deal. Conversione Vitale Potenziata is only useful for silly things like super aoe heavy situations, but even then it’s really not recommended in any practical situations.

Mietitura delle Anime: Mietitura delle Anime is a cooldown that increases you and your pet's damage by 20%. The baseline duration is 12 seconds and each target affected by Agonia will gain you 4 seconds more, up to 36 seconds. The base with 1 target active will be 16 seconds, and quickly rises from there.

This row is pretty cut and dry. In any situation where you would even consider taking Singolarità Fantasma, Mietitura delle Anime ends up being flat out better. Semina is currently only useful for sustained 3 or more target cleave, especially used in high level fortified Mythic+ keys, or any pure AOE situation.

Patto Oscuro: Patto Oscuro sacrifices 20% of your demons or your health if you have no demon and grants you a 400% shield of the sacrificed health for 20 seconds. Its cooldown is 1 minute.

This row completely depends on you and what your encounter demands. I typically prefer Rapidità Bruciante to end movement as quickly as possible and get back to casting, and use Patto Oscuro whenever there is a soaking mechanic that is needed. Patto Oscuro is almost required for high end Mythic+ pushing to deal with potential one-shot mechanics.

Tier 6:

Rito della Supremazia: Allows you to use a permanent Doomguard or Infernal. You lose your 3 minute cooldown in exchange.

Rito del Servizio: Summons a second demon which fight for you for 25 seconds and does 100% increased damage. The cooldown is 1.5 minute.

Rito del Sacrificio: Sacrifices your demons and in exchange it sometimes deal around 22,000 damage to the target and all enemies in a 8 yards radius.

Tier 7:

Abbraccio della Morte This is a ramping damage buff that starts at 0% at exactly 35% HP on the target, and ramps to 50% when it is at 0%hp. This talent is extremely strong on progression and on bosses that have enrages based on an execute range phase (such as star augur). This ability is our legendary ring talent ability, and will not affect siphon life when the ring is equipped.

Talent Builds

Explanation for each choice is given below in the descriptions for all talent options in each tier. Many of these talent builds will have tiers 45 and 75 missing, because these are mostly flavor talents and have little to zero impact on actual damage, and are interchangeable with primary damage specializations as the encounter demands in terms of mitigation and movement.

Optimal Mythic + build for Tyrannical:

In Mythic+, your damage role varies based on what you need to do damage to most. In Tyrannical dungeons, you'll need to focus on doing as much damage to bosses as possible. This spec is currently the best spec for pushing high end Tyrannical keys. Contorcimenti d'Agonia is taken despite being a single target damage loss from Stretta Malefica, due to it being better for trash damage in general. Patto Oscuro is incredibly important for absorbing potential one-shot mechanics from difficult bosses, such as Ombra di Xavius's Dardo dell'Incubo.